


from dust to dust

by SapphyreLily



Series: Riddles of Perennials [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Agender Kuroo, Dryad!Kawanishi, Dryad!Kuroo, Gen, Mentioned Character Death, Oikawa and Iwaizumi are scientists, mentioned semishira, sort of angst?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 04:17:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11866524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphyreLily/pseuds/SapphyreLily
Summary: "There was a little bird that once had livedBut now returned to earthAnd while his yew once cried and mournedNow they'll never be apart."[Also known as: Oikawa gets an interesting specimen in his lab, and asks his succulent to tell him a story.]





	from dust to dust

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Your_Friendly_Neighborhood_Pigeon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Your_Friendly_Neighborhood_Pigeon/gifts).



> This takes place after the events in [mutualism](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11161593).
> 
> Special thanks to Jams for enabling me, even though this didn't turn out as angsty as I thought it would be :3

“Kuroo!”

A figure bursting in through the door, shucking shoes off and diving for a little pot on the windowsill. The brunet holds the little plant aloft, twirling and shrieking.

“Guess what, guess what, guess what!”

“Put me down, for heck’s sake, I’m getting dizzy.”

“Nope!” Oikawa plops himself down on the sofa, hugging the little pot to his chest, giggling madly. He’s unfazed, even with the appearance of a figure taller and broader than him, holding the pot out of their reach. “Listen, listen, listen! It’s so _exciting._ ”

“Nothing is exciting if my head keeps spinning!” Kuroo puts a hand out, gripping the back of the sofa. They look a bit green.

(Oikawa giggles at the pun.)

“If I put your pot down, will you listen to me?”

“Maybe.”

“Okay, then you’re sitting with me while I tell you.” The brunet nestles the pot between his thighs, leaning forward eagerly. “So today in the lab, we got a new specimen–”

“Boring. Bye.” Kuroo turns to walk away, but they barely make it two steps before they yelp in pain. Turning back, they see Oikawa holding a leaf between his index finger and thumb, eyes narrowing and smirk widening as he presses down a bit more.

“Ow! Okay, okay, stop! I’ll listen to your damn story, stop pinching my leaves!”

Oikawa regards them for a moment longer, then releases the leaf. Kuroo sighs in relief, plopping down in the armchair, watching as their friend proceeds to stroke the punished leaf, cooing softly at it.

“Stop abusing me and then being nice,” they grumble. “Hurry up.”

“Kuroo-chan, you’re being mean to me.”

“You’re not telling your story. Hurry up, there’s some sunlight left and I want to soak that up.”

Oikawa clicks his tongue, but leans back, a glint in his eye. “So we got a new specimen today, from that forest we visited a while back – you know, the one they’re clearing for development?”

Kuroo winces at the thought. “Yeah. Those poor old trees.”

“I’m sorry for them too, but I can’t stop the government.” Oikawa sighs, petting a leaf absently. “Anyway, someone sent me a wren, perfectly preserved.”

“Preserved?” Kuroo echoes, confusion knitting their eyebrows.

“I know! You’d think anything they’d find would be dead and decomposing, but this one was perfectly preserved. Even had its last meal in its crop.”

“Ew. Don’t wanna know about bird last meals, thanks.”

“That’s not the point.” Oikawa turns to face them fully, eyes gleaming. “I ran some tests on it, and the bird actually died of cardiac failure, plus it had so much toxin in its tissues.”

“What has that got to do with your research? You study _migratory patterns_.”

“I’m getting to it,” the man huffs. “The bird was found in a yew tree. A really old, big yew, and close to the crown of the tree was this little hollow, grown over, with this wren inside.”

“Go on.” Kuroo is listening now, hands on knees, their eyes intense.

“This little wren was unusually long lived for a bird – you know how they die at about two years?”

“The longest one lived till about six or so years, wasn’t it?”

“Yep! I estimate this one to be about four years or so? And living with so much poison in its tissues! It’s like it ate poison for every day of its life, but it didn’t die.”

“That’s…interesting.”

“Isn’t it?” Oikawa grins, jabbering on with wild gestures. “I need to run more tests, to see what made it so resistant. Maybe its kidneys were really well adapted because of some mutation, and maybe that stopped working because the bird got too old, and it died. But isn’t it _amazing?_ Such a long-lived bird!

“I wanted to know if it migrated like other birds did, you know, given the toxicity it carried. And if it managed to reproduce and pass on those genetics…”

“Hold on, I see where this is going.” Kuroo holds a hand up, stopping Oikawa’s tirade. “You want me to go to the forest and ask around.”

“I’m coming with you, of course.” Oikawa _finally_ sets the pot on the coffee table, leaping forward to grab their hands, only wincing a little at the spikes that dig into his skin. “We’re gonna go find out more about this wren’s secrets, and go on a road trip at the same time!”

Kuroo looks sceptical. “Are you sure you want to know?”

“Well, yeah? All in the name of science, you know.” Oikawa shakes Kuroo’s hands in excitement. “Come on, you’re as interested as I am!”

Kuroo’s hands remain limp in his grasp, and Oikawa stops, peering at them curiously, hesitantly. “What?”

Kuroo huffs. “What’s that human saying… Curiosity killed the cat?”

“I’m human.”

“Not the point,” Kuroo sighs. “Some things are just better left alone, you know?”

“Is this another plant secret?” Oikawa is bouncy and jubilant again, excitement leaking from every pore. “Come on, I want to know!”

“Are you _sure_ you want to know? Some things really are better left alone.”

“Of course I want to know! Come on, tell me.”

Kuroo sighs. “Fine. But can you put my pot back out there first?”

“Oh!” Oikawa drops their hands and runs off, leaving them. They curl up and sigh, contemplating how to best tell the story.

Oikawa is back in no time, pulling his feet up and hanging off the armrest of the sofa. He fits his head in his hands, eyes bright and shining. “I’m ready.”

Kuroo looks him in the eye, fingers twisting together. “Have I told you the story of that forest?”

“No?”

“It’s a well-known story, but even I didn’t know until we went there.” Kuroo shrugs. “I’m an aloe, and those stories are confined to forests.”

“You weren’t even propagated from the desert.”

“Exactly. So I didn’t hear this story till we got to the forest, and I went exploring, ya know?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Yeah, just…” Kuroo’s hands twist together even more, then stops. They sigh heavily, glancing up at Oikawa. “First, can you tell me if they cut down that yew?”

Oikawa blinks. “Well, yeah. How else would they have gotten the wren from a hollow near the crown? Japanese yews are _huge._ ”

Kuroo slumps further, fingers squeezing together tightly, muttering under their breath. Oikawa looks at them carefully. “Was the yew a friend of yours?”

They shake their head. “I spoke to him briefly. He showed me some interesting things while we were there, and he had a lot of knowledge to share.”

“Oh.” Oikawa’s lost for words. “I’m sorry.”

“…it’s not your fault. He lived a good, long life, anyway.”

They sit in silence for a moment, the shadows growing longer.

“So, about that story…”

Kuroo snorts, but it’s half-hearted. “Yeah. The story.

“’The poison wren and his yew’.”

“Wait, _what?”_

“Are you gonna let me talk or not?”

“Sorry, sorry.” Oikawa mimes zipping his lips, but promptly unzips them, another question falling out. “The _poison_ wren?”

“I’m not telling you if you don’t shut up!”

Oikawa throws his hands up in surrender, zipping his lips again, setting his head on top of folded hands. Kuroo squints at him for a while longer, tentatively beginning.

“The forest was said to be the place of many unusual things, but the most unusual happened in the past fifty years, when a new breed of co-existence came into being.

“For many years, nothing had changed, and the forest was as it was – self-sustaining and evolving, prey and predator, host and parasite, and always, always, forms of commensalism as organisms lived with each other.

“But at some point, the forest began to notice something – a dryad and a bird spirit in the glades together, walking about as some spirits do.

“It was unusual because it wasn’t of any two species that anyone had ever seen before. It was of a common bird – a wren, a visitor to the forest, coming and going, well-liked by most – but also of a tree, and not one that most wrens would flock to.”

They see that Oikawa’s mouth is edging open, and glare at him, tapping their lips. The human catches on quickly, physically shutting his jaw, though his eyes shine with excitement.

“The dryad was of a tree that most in the forest avoided, one of the only of its kind. It was a Japanese yew, whose twigs and branches and leaves have killed too many by accident.

“And yet! The wren spirit was walking calmly beside the dryad, as close as two spirits can be.” Kuroo pauses, their voice dropping to almost a whisper. “It was said that the wren lived with the yew, unafraid of the poison, unafraid to die.

“But he did not die. The wren lived, longer than a day, longer than a week. For seasons they were seen together, and even if the wren flew far and went elsewhere for hunting, he always came back to the yew.

“Everyone in the forest knew them. And if they didn’t, they soon heard.

“The poison wren and his yew. For if the yew was poisonous and the wren lived on it, surely he was poisonous too.

“But no matter the talk, the old trees of the forest were glad. For so long, the yew had been alone, and now, he had found someone. Though the life of a wren is fleeting at best, for that time that they had, the yew had someone, and the wren was not alone.

“It was said that they were the happiest amongst all the co-existent species of the forest, and they were something to learn from. It was said that they were never apart, a legend in the making, two poisonous beings co-existing.”

Kuroo finishes, and looks down, back at their twined fingers. “When we were there, I never saw the wren, but the yew didn’t seem unhappy. He seemed alright, though we never went near his tree.”

Oikawa taps his chin in contemplation. “That’s interesting.”

“It’s supposed to be a nice story, not just ‘interesting’!”

“You didn’t tell me it was romantic,” Oikawa points out. “But it _is_ very sweet that the yew found someone to talk to, especially since no one else wanted to talk to him.”

“Well, yeah.”

“And this wren, you think it could be the same one that I got in the lab this morning?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

“You are a most unhelpful plant,” Oikawa sniffs. “But eh, I see.”

“See what?”

 _“If_ the wren I got today is the poison wren of that forest, that’d be really interesting. I said before, didn’t I? It died of the poison in the end. It wasn’t as poison resistant as the story says.”

“Well,” Kuroo says, “Nothing’s really ever poison resistant, is it?”

“Who knows. I’ll take some samples and run some tests, but afterwards… Hmm.”

“Hmm what?”

“I still need to figure out if the wren ever migrated or not. Or if it reproduced.”

Kuroo groans. “Let the dead stay dead for once.”

“We’re going down to the forest this weekend,” Oikawa announces, ignoring them completely. “If they haven’t dug up the place too badly, we can bury the remnants of the wren where the yew once stood, and you can help me ask the trees if the wren ever reproduced.”

“Why am I always your accomplice?” Kuroo whines, hanging off the side of the armchair.

“Because the dryads don’t want to talk to a human.” Oikawa stands and stretches, turning towards the kitchen. “Besides, at least I’m going to return the wren and not toss it out with the other biological waste.”

“Eugh.”

“We’ll all be biological waste someday, Kuroo-chan. Suck it up.”

\-----

It takes a long time, even with Kuroo running about to find the place where the yew once stood. Oikawa’s research pass gets them past a lot of the construction areas, and he stops every so often to collect soil samples for show.

“Next thing you know, you’ll be a geologist and studying soil for real,” Kuroo teases.

Oikawa rolls his eyes at them.

“At least I know enough about soil to keep you happy and healthy, you ridiculous succulent.”

“I’m your favourite plant.”

“You’re my only plant.”

“Exactly!”

“Keep talking like that and I’ll give you to Iwa-chan to dissect. He’s been looking at desert plants lately.”

“Ooh, I’m so scared. You’d have no one to talk to without me.”

“I’ll get a new plant, just watch me.”

They bicker back and forth as they walk through the forest, stopping only for water breaks for the human, and whenever Kuroo needs to go ask for directions.

And finally, finally, they end up on a sad piece of land, the tree stumps not completely removed yet.

A friendly woodpecker spirit had given them directions to the tree, and walking around the enormous stump, Oikawa is almost certain that they have the correct yew.

“Alright, Kuroo-chan. Keep an eye out while I dig.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

It’s hard work digging several metres into the soil, but Oikawa sets to it, carving out a small hollow beneath the stump. He knows that the stump will be bulldozed away soon, but with luck, the body of the wren would be deep enough that when it decomposes, it will fully return to the soil.

He is about a metre deep when he spots something, a reddish-purple leaf, almost completely intact. He calls Kuroo over, handing them the leaf.

They turn the leaf over in their hands, fingers tracing the veins. “It’s from a nandina.”

“Sacred bamboo?” Oikawa looks at the leaf with renewed interest. “That’s not native to this forest.”

“I could have told you that, even without you finding the leaf a metre below ground.”

“It’s _interesting_. Stop judging me.”

“Judging you is my job,” Kuroo tells him loftily, stepping back with a laugh when they get swiped at. “Alright, I’m going to pay the nandina a visit. You can bury the wren.”

“You were supposed to keep watch for me!”

“Do you want your migratory pattern information or not?” Kuroo waves the leaf in his face. “Dryads don’t keep leaves of other plants just for fun, you know. And that it still hasn’t decomposed shows that it’s got special significance.”

“Fine, O Great Dryad.” Oikawa rolls his eyes. “Go and do your plant things and come back whenever. I’ll head back to the car after this.”

“See ya whenever, ridiculous human of mine.”

They disappear, and Oikawa sticks his tongue out at the spot they were last in before resuming his digging.

\-----

_“So? What’s the deets?”_

_Kuroo shifts on the sofa, twirling the nandina leaf between their fingers. “The nandina is a friend of the yew's. They got to know each other when the wren went to visit.”_

_“I thought the wren never left the yew.”_

_“He left once. To go explore the city, but he came back after, with a nandina leaf so that his dryad friends wouldn’t be lonely after he died.”_

_“What a caring bird.”_

_“So I heard.” Kuroo sets the leaf on the table, twisting to look at Oikawa. “The wren never reproduced. And he never migrated.”_

_“Huh.” The brunet’s eyes are wide. “Why?”_

_“The yew and the wren were lovers.” Kuroo smiles a little, a wistful smile on their face. “The wren never wanted a mate because he had the yew, and he never migrated because he wanted to stay with the yew.”_

_“Damn. That’s some romantic stuff.”_

_Kuroo throws a cushion at him, and he catches it, laughing._

_“The nandina said we can go visit him, if we want to hear more about them.”_

_“Can we?!”_

_“Yeah. I don’t think he’d know anything about your migratory patterns though.”_

_“Fudge the patterns. If the wren never wanted to go, then we’d never know if it was because of the poison accumulation or not, anyway.”_

_“Whatever you say, boss.”_

_“Shut up, you succulent.”_

\-----

“The Imperial Palace Gardens?!”

“Yep.”

“How do you expect me to get in there?!”

“Walk in like a tourist?”

Oikawa huffs. “Please tell me it’s in the East Gardens, at least.”

Kuroo rolls their eyes. “I’m a plant. You think I know the geography of your land of concrete?”

“I will overwater you and leave you to die.”

“No, you wouldn’t.”

“One day. Just you watch me, Kuroo-chan.”

\-----

The nandina is thankfully, located in the East Gardens. Oikawa probably looks like an idiot, walking through the gardens with his camera around his neck and his aloe plant in hand, but he holds his head high and keeps moving forward.

(Kuroo keeps snickering at him, but he pays them no mind.)

He sets up a little mat next to the nandina, reclining for a bit before starting to snap photos. He feels Kuroo coming to lie next to him after a while, sighing in contentment.

“Well, you aren’t what I expected.”

Oikawa turns and smiles, bobbing his head. “Hello.”

“Hello.” The nandina dryad looks wary, never coming closer. “I expect you are the aloe’s human?”

“Of course.” He beams. “I just wanted to ask you some things about the poison wren, and we’ll stop bothering you.”

The dryad looks pained. “I already told your aloe whatever I know.”

“Kuroo-chan doesn’t know all the right questions to ask, though they get it right most of the time.” He pets a leaf on the aloe, glancing at the dryad laid out on the mat, asleep. “But I wanted to ask how the wren died. And how weak he was, before he died.”

The nandina looks at him impassively. “The wren died suddenly. Maybe he had a day or two of laboured breathing, and tremors, but it was winter.”

Oikawa types this into his phone, tapping his chin. “How old was he?”

“I don’t know. Time passes differently for us than it does for you.”

“How do you measure time, then?”

“Seasons. It was about two winters after he first met me that he passed on. The yew grieved for a long time.” The nandina’s expression flickers, and he seems almost sad.

“But you had each other, no?” Oikawa says. The nandina looks at him, face settling back into neutrality.

“We were never to each other what the yew and the wren were to each other. Perhaps companions, but not so closely affiliated as that.”

“Hmm, I see. One last question, if you please?”

“Hurry up, then.” The nandina looks tired.

“Did the wren ever try to migrate?”

“No.” The answer is instantaneous. “They never wanted to be apart.”

“Okay, thank you–”

“But,” the nandina says quietly, “The wren got more and more tired, as the seasons passed. He could never fly as far, and sometimes they spent days sitting at the tree, not going for long walks as they liked to.”

That confirms everything Oikawa needs to know.

He locks his phone and slips it into his pocket, nodding. “Thank you for your time. We’ll not bother you again.”

The nandina bobs his head, pauses. Speaks almost tentatively. “I wouldn’t mind if the aloe came back.”

Oikawa is surprised for a moment, then smiles. “If they wanted to, sure.”

The nandina nods, and holds out a leaf. “Tuck this in the roots of their pot. They can come visit me anytime.”

Oikawa takes the leaf. “I can cut a bulb of Kuroo-chan’s for you, so that you can come visit them too?”

The dryad almost smiles. “No, the bulb would sprout, and wouldn’t survive long in these gardens. I will wait for their visits.”

“As you wish.” Oikawa dips his head one last time, picks up the pot and the mat. Kuroo jostles awake and yawns, their form dissipating as they stretch and step back into their plant.

He has turned to go, when he hears something else.

_“Thank you…”_

“For what?”

He does not turn back around.

_“For returning the wren to the ground. He would be happy to know that he is near the last remaining part of his lover.”_

Oikawa smiles. “It was the right thing to do. Thank you for your time.”

This time, as he walks away, no voice calls him back.

\-----

_“What do you think?”_

_“I think we’ll never know. Unless another anomaly like this happens and we hear of it, we’ll never find out.”_

_“Huh. Curious.”_

_“Hey, Oikawa. Stop talking to your plant and come help me out.”_

_Oikawa twists to grin at his co-worker. “Iwa-chan, don’t be jealous that I love Kuroo-chan more than I love you.”_

_Iwaizumi rolls his eyes. “I’m not interested in your love. I want you to come here and map out these statistics for me, and stop worrying about that story you heard.”_

_“But Iwa-chan! It was so romantic, no?”_

_“No.”_

_An exasperated sigh. “You’re so unromantic.”_

_“I’m just focused on my work, like you should be.”_

_“Mm. Yeah, yeah.”_

_But the moment his back is turned, Iwaizumi leans over and strokes the aloe’s leaf, avoiding its spikes, whispering._

“Don’t tell him, but I believe in the poison wren and the yew. Who cares if the wren died because of the yew’s poison? They were together until the end.

“You can’t ever say the same about humans.”

**Author's Note:**

> Tbh I have no idea what I was doing. We were learning about the influenza virus in class and how birds can't migrate if they're sick ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
